From a vague place, the young Jin Xuanwan was playing in a familiar garden. She raised her head to see a person pass by the rose bushes. Her eyes widened, filled with admiration.
"The Holy Priestess! She's back!"
It was not the first time she saw the Holy Priestess. The Holy Priestess wants Jin Xuanwan to be her disciple. Jin Xuanwan was full of hope she will finally stay close to her idol. However, she didn't foresee the Holy Priestess bringing a girl from the outside world called Wu, a place the whole Golden Dragon Realm despises.
Why will the Holy Priestess take in an outsider as her disciple?
This is unacceptable!
The young girl wanted to voice out her displeasure. It was not only her, the entire Golden Dragon Realm disagrees. Thus, when she was given a chance to be the Holy Priestess' apprentice, Jin Xuanwan tried to surpass Lan Xishi. Unfortunately, that never happened.
Lan Xishi became the master of everything the Holy Priestess taught them. She overshadowed a descendant of the Golden Dragon Realm which humiliated Jin Xuanwan and changed everyone's view towards Lan Xishi.
But, worse comes worst. Lan Xishi slaughtered a lot of their apprentice brothers and sisters just to take the hybrid away. The Holy Priestess was so distressed, she only found hope upon finding the only winged tiger left which is Fenghu and Jin Xuanwan alive amongst the mountains of corpses.
In the present, Shen Mo is healing Jin Xuanwan in a room he booked from an inn. Fenghu is sleeping beside the bed. It was already nearing dawn and Shen Mo is taking his time. He finished healing her after transferring a strand of his wood attributed qi. With it, he discovered her true attainment. She is a Nascent cultivator.
Aside from that, he conducted Soul Search without alarming Fenghu and Jin Xuanwan's Nascent Soul. He came to know Jin Xuanwan's whole life revolved around vengeance and insecurities because of Lan Xishi.
"I didn't expect that girl seven hundred years ago to be Lan Xishi." He remembered a fraction of his past after seeing Jin Xuanwan's memories.
While reminiscing, Shen Mo noticed a gu insect attached in her robes. He drew closer to remove it.
"Traitor..."
Jin Xuanwan muttered. Her lashes trembled and her eyelids were lifted up. She first saw a blurry figure above her but in no time, her sight became clear. Jin Xuanwan was shocked to see Shen Mo sitting by the bedside and his hand is about to descend on her chest.
"Creep!"
Pa!
A loud crisp slap echoed in the room after the surprised shout of a girl. The innkeeper who passed by the room paused on his steps.
"Eh, maybe a couple quarreled again." He shrugged his shoulder and left.
Inside the room, Jin Xuanwan had her arms around her chest as she looked at Shen Mo in anger. Fenghu had woken up from the shout and he is helpless to do anything since the red palm mark is deeply imprinted on Shen Mo's cheek underneath his hood.
"Y-you! Who are you?! Fenghu, kill this bastard!" Jin Xuanwan was flustered. She hadn't experienced being molested before and it caused a great impact on her emotional state.
"Brat, I just saved your life! Is that how you express gratitude?!" Shen Mo tried to rub his swollen cheek but it stings he wanted to curse.
"Fenghu!" Jin Xuanwan insisted. Fenghu still didn't move. "Fenghu?"
"Your Highness, this man saved us from the ancient spirit in White Tiger Mansion's ancestral graveyard." Fenghu explained what caused Jin Xuanwan to freeze.
"He did...?" She can't believe it. "This guy? Seriously?!"
"Why are ladies so good at slapping?" Shen Mo lamented on his own but his loathing earned a ridiculous look from the girl.
"What do you want to do?" Jin Xuanwan asked, referring to the scene she saw when she woke up.
He saved her, yes. However, the Holy Priestess told her how unscrupulous and devious the people are outside the Golden Dragon Realm. He must be after her body in exchange for saving her or the treasures Golden Dragon Realm hides.
"Take that gu off you. It's in your dress." Shen Mo instructed while cooling his painful cheek. He seemed uninterested in Jin Xuanwan's antics.
Jin Xuanwan looked down at her loose collar and found a gu insect biting the fabric of her dress. She was embarrassed after realizing she mistook him as a pervert but she can't bring herself from apologizing. She took the gu and crushed it. Jin Xuanwan glanced at Shen Mo shyly, but stubborn too.
"You saved us..."
"Yeah, right. And I instantly regretted it!" Shen Mo scoffed. His face, ah. It has never suffered this way, it is really cursed.
"Tell me, how can I repay you?" It was never taught to her how to be an integrate but if he asks for something she is unwilling to do, she won't hesitate to punch his face next time.
Shen Mo turned to her and sighed, "I'm waiting for you to do it on your own. Come on."
"Bastard!" Jin Xuanwan knew it, he is still a lecher!
She suppressed her angry thoughts and decided to catch him off guard. She loosened her robe, holding the lapels of her dress a little closer but enough to expose her soft pink dudou wrapped around her mounds.
"Hey, I'm waiting." Shen Mo glanced at her impatiently but he didn't expect she was trying to undress.
"Huh?" Jin Xuanwan was astounded when Shen Mo threw the blanket over her and covered her whole person. She lowered the blanket, instinctively covered herself with it.
"Are you an idiot?" Shen Mo poked her forehead with enough force to make her grunt in pain. He crossed his arms and said in disdain, "I was waiting for a 'thank you', not a special service. What's wrong with you? Do you think I'm that sort of person? If I was, I would have taken advantage of you when you were unconscious!"
Jin Xuanwan was stuck between shame and surprise. He is not that sort of person the Holy Priestess described. She said all people from the outside world will do everything to get what they wanted. Wu is full of strife and sins, that is why the first Holy Priestess hid the Golden Dragon Realm from the outside world.
"Forget it. I was expecting too much from a brat." He heaved another sigh and went off the bedside. "Fenghu, look after your master. She's a reckless kid."
Shen Mo grumbled on his way to the door. He only wants one word of thanks but she mistook it like that. How did she come to a conclusion such as? He didn't say she would strip, right? He didn't say serve him, right? Just what do Golden Dragon Realm descendants see him as?
This wasn't the first time Shen Mo received the same response from a woman of the same origin as Jin Xuanwan. He's always a good guy, but they keep mistaking him as a retard.
"Wait! Sir, stop!" Jin Xuanwan suddenly said, with the word 'sir'.
Shen Mo paused, not anticipating she will be courteous. "What?"
"The hybrid, the Fierce Feral Beast, is identical to Fenghu. Have you seen one? I don't believe it if Wu has a mutated Winged Tiger like Fenghu, only Golden Dragon Realm does, and Fenghu is the last of them aside from the hybrid. I was following you because of it." She had realized Shen Mo is trustworthy and it is fine if she informs him of her mission.
Shen Mo remembered Mimi. He could have told her straightforwardly but Mimi is Cai's pet. She found the spirit beast so it is predestined to be hers. Cai will surely be saddened if he gives it away.
"I haven't seen one." He lied and looked away.
"The first time we met, you said your disciple has a pet called Mimi that looks exactly like Fenghu." The girl pressed on the matter and cornered Shen Mo.
"So? It's my disciple's pet, she can keep it." Shen Mo reasoned out. He won't let them snatch Mimi from his cute apprentice. He already spent a lot of primeval stones for that tiger's food! "Do whatever you want but I won't mention where to find it."
Jin Xuanwan is unable to rebuke him. Once Shen Mo left, she became hopeless. Jin Xuanwan leaned on the headboard and looked at her hand that she used to slap Shen Mo. An idea brimmed in her head.
"Fenghu, his scent, follow it."
Shen Mo's next stop is the Demon Realm. His aunt Xian Qing is about to marry and he is required to attend. On the way to the Demon Realm, he searched for the herbs with pure yin. Shen Mo disregarded the danger and easily scared the ghosts wandering around, not as easy as Jin Xuanwan struggling not to scream due to the weird ghosts following her.
"Where is he heading to?" Jin Xuanwan can't help but wonder because the further they go, the more strange the place becomes.
Before they knew it, they arrived close to a dark river. A lot of disfigured human silhouettes are trying to swim out of the river but an invisible force is pulling them to its depth. Their helpless groans sound so demonic and otherworldly too.
"Your Highness, something is not right." Fenghu's instinct tells so. The path to the Demon Realm is odd and he had guessed Shen Mo went off track from the real route towards the Demon Realm.
"If something was odd, I'd say he practices dark path with the way he has been harvesting yin-induced materials." Jin Xuanwan murmured and kept her eyes glued on Shen Mo's back.
Shen Mo stepped nigher to the river. He bit his thumb and let a drop of his blood merge with the black river. All of a sudden, the river produced crazy waves, and all human figures drowned with their agonizing screams. Shen Mo looked calm even when a monstrous creature emerged from the river. What caught his full attention were the dark lustrous stones on its broad back.
"Who are you to taint my dwelling?!" It loudly asked and slammed its fists on the ground.
Strong winds blew across Shen Mo, almost blowing his hood off but he held it on time. He healed the cut he made on his thumb and faced the monster he provoked.
"The Stone of Revival, I want one." He simply said.
The monster paused without a reaction but it soon roared in anger and tried to smash Shen Mo. Fortunately, the monster moves slower so Shen Mo avoided its attack effortlessly.
"Audacious human!"
"The Stone of Revival? So, this is the lost Blood River." Fenghu recalled one thing which caught Jin Xuanwan's interest.
"What is it?"
"Your Highness, during the Primordial Era, there are two clans who controlled the Six Realms, the God and Demon Clan. Humans are just their slaves during those periods. The God Clan and Demon Clan never had a peaceful interaction until a wise human servant of the God Clan incited them to wage war against the latter. A great slaughter occurred during the war and a goddess was left alone amidst the chaos. She had secretly fallen for a Demon Clan member and she saw how her own lineage killed him."
"She happens to be the Goddess of Condemnation. She cursed everyone involved with the bloodbath. The black river we see now is actually the blood of the God Clan and those figures struggling to get out are their cursed spirits. They believed coming out of the river will revive them, they never knew that the monster carries the only key for their resurrection, the Stone of Revival that are attached to its back. That monster too is the beloved of the goddess. She sacrificed herself to become the Stone of Revivals, only deserving to her clan members that had repented."
Jin Xuanwan was amazed at her newfound knowledge. She really missed so much history while living secluded in the Golden Dragon Realm.